Steam launches fall sale alongside the first annual Steam Awards

Steam just kicked off its annual autumn sale and along with it the first annual Steam Awards. That’s right, Steam’s first video game awards are now open for nominations, with some very peculiar award categories.

It’s worth mentioning that any game in the Steam store is eligible for user nominations and the awards themselves will be given out in December. So what awards are your favorite games up for this year?

At the top of the ticket we have the “Test of Time” award, for games with immense replay value — the kind of game that is just as fun today as it was when it first came out, no matter how many years ago that was. Next up are a few other, more abnormal award categories like: the “I’m Not Crying, There’s Something in My Eye” Award, for achievement in emotional manipulation, and the “Best Use of a Farm Animal” award.

There are a handful of others, which you can check out here – and nominate your own favorites. It’s refreshing to see some new categories beyond the usual awards handed out this time of year, even if they are tongue-in-cheek, the kind of awards you won’t likely see at the Oscars or Emmy Awards this year.

Registered Steam users can vote once in each category, but can’t nominate the same game for multiple categories. There’s also a forthcoming category which will be determined by the users themselves.

It’s a great way to remind gamers of the autumn sale going on, during which Steam doubles down on its usual deep discounts by offering up some of this year’s most anticipated games at less-than-retail pricing — sometimes with attractive add-ons.

In addition to huge discounts on Steam-published titles, some of the more lucrative offerings include a heavily discounted Doom, and GTA V.